Patron

Lord Rothschild OM GBE

Lord Rothschild has been involved extensively in public service for many years. He has been a prominent philanthropist, notably in the arts, and is an active supporter and benefactor of a number of key British institutions. He was chairman of the board of trustees of The National Gallery from 1985 to 1991 and of the British National Heritage Lottery Fund, where he oversaw the distribution of £1.2 billion worth of grants, between 1994 and 1998. He was instrumental in the restoration of Somerset House and Spencer House and was heavily involved in securing financing for the Courtauld Institute, where he served on the Board. He has been a major benefactor of the restoration of Waddesdon Manor, the great Rothschild house built and created by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild in the 1880s, and remains actively involved in the management of this National Trust property.

He is also active in Jewish philanthropy as Chairman of Yad Hanadiv, the Rothschild family foundation operating in Israel which funded the creation of the Knesset and is currently involved in the renewal of the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem. He is also President of Rothschild Foundation (Hanadiv) Europe.

In business, Lord (Jacob) Rothschild began his career at N M Rothschild & Sons, from where he left in 1980 to develop RIT Capital Partners plc, the investment company listed on the London Stock Exchange. He was a founding partner of Global Asset Management and St James’s Place Capital and in addition, has a wide range of other venture capital, investment and property interests.